Building Confidence and Increasing Sales at a Sustainable Greenhouse

I have been fortunate to work in a greenhouse in Dexter, Michigan, over the past few summers, and during that time I have become increasingly curious about how a sustainable greenhouse and farm operates. I have learned many aspects of the business, including sourcing new plant materials; planting and watering; interacting with customers to meet their individual needs; and other invaluable skills. 

Last summer, I proposed an internship idea that combined my business and sustainability studies with the greenhouse's needs. I implemented a new SKU system for all greenhouse products and, where possible, used individualized labels. This helped us track many of the products on the floor. This also improved traffic flow in the greenhouse.

In the past, we had used generic stickers that we had to enter into the system manually, which increased wait times at checkout and raised error rates. Now, we saw a massive increase in customer happiness and team efficiency. Moving forward, we can use the generated numbers to better estimate product quantities for future years and, in turn, reduce end-of-season waste. 

Another aspect of the itemization implementation was product placement within the greenhouse to maximize exposure, space, and, in the long run, profitability. By working with my boss on product spacing, we placed items in the best locations to sell based on customers' walking patterns from previous years. With these tweaks and product movement, we saw a substantial increase in sales by placing items in locations known to sell better. 

Another crucial part of this internship was leading the team. While everyone on our team has the same title, I developed leadership skills I will bring into future seasons. This project amplified my sense of voice and responsibility. I also believe it helped us grow as a team and impacted other team members’ confidence in the system and in themselves. For a small business, changes like new itemization systems can make a big difference in the long run and show results even in the short term. Thanks to support from the Erb Institute, I was able to maximize opportunities, learn new skills, and see a difference in productivity at the greenhouse.